Former MLB Player Found Guilty of Obstructing Justice and Lying to Federal Officials Investigating Illegal Sports Gambling Ring

LOS ANGELES – A former Major League Baseball (MLB) player was found guilty by a jury today of lying to federal law enforcement officials about bets on sporting events that he placed with an illegal gambling operation. 

Yasiel Puig Valdés, 35, of Miami, was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice and one count of making false statements. Puig played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, and professional baseball teams in Mexico and South Korea.

According to evidence presented at a 13-day trial, in May 2019, Puig began placing bets on sporting events through Donny Kadokawa, a sub-agent of the illegal gambling business run by Wayne Joseph Nix, 49, of Newport Coast. Puig called and sent text messages to Kadokawa with wagers on sporting events. Kadokawa then submitted the bets to the Nix gambling business on Puig’s behalf. By June 2019, Puig owed Nix’s gambling business $282,900 in sports gambling losses.

Kadokawa and Benny Bonilla, another person who assisted Puig with payments to Nix, instructed Puig to make a check or wire transfer payable to a Nix gambling business client – Joseph Schottenstein – to whom the business owed at least $200,000 in gambling winnings.

On June 25, 2019, Puig withdrew $200,000 from a Bank of America branch in Glendale then purchased two cashiers’ checks for $100,000 each that were made payable to Schottenstein. Puig did not immediately send the checks because of a dispute over the balance and access to Nix-controlled websites used to place sports bets. Nix refused to allow Puig access to the betting websites until Puig’s gambling debt was paid.

After Puig paid the $200,000, Nix provided Puig direct access to the betting websites. From July 4, 2019, to September 29, 2019, Puig placed 899 additional bets on tennis, football, and basketball games through the websites. Puig placed many of these bets at MLB ballparks just before and after games in which he played. Puig ran up a gambling debt with Nix’s illegal bookmaking operation of nearly $1 million, a debt he never paid.

In January 2022, federal investigators interviewed Puig in the presence of his lawyers. During the interview, despite being warned that lying to federal agents is a crime, Puig lied several times. During the interview, he falsely stated that he “only” knew Kadokawa from baseball and that he never discussed gambling with him, when in fact Puig discussed sports betting with Kadokawa hundreds of times on the telephone and via text message.

After agents showed Puig a copy of one of the cashiers’ checks he purchased on June 25, 2019, Puig falsely stated that he did not know the person who instructed him to send $200,000 in cashiers’ checks to Schottenstein. Puig also falsely stated that he had placed a bet online with an unknown person on an unknown website that resulted in a loss of $200,000.

In March 2022, Puig sent Bonilla an audio message via WhatsApp in which he admitted to lying to federal agents and to obstructing their grand jury investigation during his interview two months earlier.

In 2019, as part of his naturalization process, Puig – a Cuban national – lied on a U.S. government immigration form and while under oath during his naturalization interview by stating that he had never engaged in illegal gambling or received income from illegal gambling.

Nix pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business and one count of filing a false tax return. Nix is expected to be sentenced in the coming months.

United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee scheduled a May 26 sentencing hearing, at which time Puig will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison on the obstruction of justice charge and up to five years in prison for the false statement charges. Puig remains free on his own personal recognizance.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter. The HSI agents are part of the El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force.

Assistant United States Attorneys Juan M. Rodriguez, Michael J. Morse, and Laura A. Alexander of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case with assistance from Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey P. Mitchell of the Northern District of California.